This picture taken on March 21, 2012 shows Shohei Otani, an 18-year-old Hanamaki Higashi High School student, pitching at a high school baseball championship at Koshien stadium in Nishinomiya, Hyogo prefecture, near Osaka in western Japan. It was reported on October 21, 2012 that Otani has decided to try his hand in the Major Leagues in the US, making the jump after his high school graduation. JAPAN OUT AFP PHOTO / JIJI PRESS JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty Images

In their own
ways, Masanori Murakami, Hideo Nomo and Hideki Irabu broke ground by
leaving Japan to pitch in the United States. Shohei Otani wants to join
the list of pioneering pitchers.

A 6-foot-4-inch, 18-year-old
right-hander from Iwate prefecture in northern Japan, Otani wants to
become the first Japanese player to jump directly from high school to
U.S. baseball. Several major league clubs are courting him, with the Los
Angeles Dodgers, the Texas Rangers and the Boston Red Sox among the favorites to sign him because they have scouted him aggressively.

In
a widely watched news conference in Japan on Sunday, Otani made clear
what has been rumored for months: He wants to start his professional
career in the United States. Otani made his announcement to dissuade
Japanese professional teams from choosing him in the high school draft
Thursday.

''Great players from every country go there," Otani said
Sunday, according to Sponichi, a Japanese sports newspaper. "I don't
want to lose to those players." Otani's decision has sent rumbles
through the Japanese baseball world, where general managers and team
presidents have watched some of their best players sign with clubs in
Major League Baseball. The chance that one of Japan's top high school
prospects might leave has caused additional angst.

"This is
another hole in the dike for the NPB," said Robert Whiting, who has
written several books on Japanese baseball, referring to Nippon
Professional Baseball. "It's just more evidence they have become a
feeder system for the MLB."

Several of the 12 Japanese
professional clubs have indicated that they will not draft Otani. If no
club picks him, Otani will be free to negotiate with any MLB team. Otani
has not played for a Japanese professional team, so any major league
team that signs him will not have to pay a posting fee.

If a
Japanese team drafts him, the club will be able to negotiate with him
exclusively until March 31. There are no rules preventing a major league
team from negotiating with Otani as well, but MLB has a gentlemen's
agreement with Nippon Professional Baseball to stand aside during the
exclusive negotiating period.

Otani has attracted a lot of
attention because of his fastball, which has hit 98 mph, as well as a
good breaking ball and splitter, according to one major league scout who
travels often to Japan and has seen video of Otani.

"He would project to a midrotation guy eventually in the States," according to the scout, who did not want his team's name used.

Ira
Stevens, who runs ScoutDragon, a scouting service in Japan, goes one
step further. He called Otani "the next potential Yu Darvish from
Tohoku," in northern Honshu. Otani, he said, is more of a "work in
progress" than Darvish at the end of his high school career, has a live
arm and might have some potential as a hitter because of his size.

Otani
also pitched for Japan in the under-18 world championships in South
Korea in late August. In two starts, he was 0-1 with a 4.35 earned run
average, and gave up eight walks while striking out 16.

The larger
question, the scout said, is whether Otani can adjust not only to the
faster pace of baseball in the United States but to life overseas. His
father said that he worried about his son's ability to bridge the
cultural divide and speak English. The Dodgers, Rangers and Red Sox all
have experience working with Japanese players.

The track record
for Japanese pitchers leapfrogging their own pro league, though, is not
good. Makoto Suzuki, known as Mac, dropped out of high school and signed
with the Seattle Mariners in 1993. After playing in the minor leagues
for several years, he was traded to the New York Mets and then picked up
by the Kansas City Royals. He later played for the Colorado Rockies,
the Milwaukee Brewers, the Oakland Athletics and the Chicago Cubs and
finished his career with a 16-31 record and a 5.72 ERA.

Kazuhito
Tadano was a top college prospect who signed with the Cleveland Indians
in 2003 and had a 1-1 record in two brief major league stints.

In
2008, the Red Sox signed Junichi Tazawa, a top prospect who played in
Japan's industrial league. He asked Japanese teams not to draft him
because he wanted to play in the United States. He has compiled a 3-4
record and a 3.73 ERA in parts of three seasons in Boston.

Tazawa's
departure prompted Japanese baseball officials to create the Tazawa
rule, to signal that players who left Japan would not be welcomed back
quickly. Under the rule, if a player decides to play overseas after
being drafted by a Japanese team, he cannot play for a Japanese pro club
for up to three years after he returns to Japan.

Murakami, who
was lent to the San Francisco Giants in the 1960s, was forced to return
to Japan. Nomo became the first Japanese player to move to the United
States permanently and never pitched in Japan again. Irabu went to the
United States after his Japanese team sold his contract to the San Diego
Padres. He pitched six major league seasons combined for the New York
Yankees, the Montreal Expos and the Rangers, then played for the Hanshin
Tigers for parts of two other seasons.

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